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Workshop Will Explore Conflict and Connection

As an Island known for our close connections, we know, too, about differences. How do we respond to differences and create opportunity out of conflict? And how do we foster understanding?

That’s the focus of an interactive workshop to be held on Island on Saturday, June 14. This day-long workshop presents a new way to view conflict: as a chance for connection.

There also will be a free overview of nonviolent communication on Friday, June 13, from 7 to 9:30 p.m. at Howes House in West Tisbury.

In April, At Canaan’s Edge author Taylor Branch was reported saying, in a speech at the National Cathedral about Dr. Martin Luther King: “There is no more salient or neglected field of study than the relationship between power and violence. We recoil from nonviolence at our peril. Dr. King rightly saw it at the heart of democracy.

“Our nation is a great cathedral of votes — votes not only for Congress and for president, but also votes on Supreme Court decisions and on countless juries. Votes govern the boards of great corporations and tiny charities alike. Visibly and invisibly, everything runs on votes. And every vote is nothing but a piece of nonviolence.”

Nonviolent communication is gaining recognition as a way to resolve personal and group conflicts in a way that leads to deeper connections between the parties talking, whether they are couples or government bodies. This upcoming Island workshop is based on the practice of nonviolent communication as developed by Marshall Rosenberg.

“Many of us are afraid to be honest because we fear conflict. Yet authenticity is a gift when offered without criticism or blame,” says workshop leader Dian Killian, director of Brooklyn Nonviolent Communication in New York and co-author of Connecting Across Differences: A Guide to Compassionate, Nonviolent Communication.

The workshop will be held from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. at Howes House on State Road in West Tisbury. The cost is $135. To register or for more details, call Niki Patton at 508-693-4307.